Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Spotlight on Vegan Chocolate and Vegan Caramel

Dark
chocolate is bliss and certainly there is nothing wrong with having it straight
up. An honest and true dark chocolate bar with just beans and sugar, maybe a
little extra cocoa butter, is not to be argued with. I have spent many a happy
day munching on an 85% solid dark chocolate and wanted for nothing more.

But I
like a little variety in life. So, every now and again I go a bit caramel
crazy. Smooth oozing caramel is my favourite - maybe a little salty to balance
the sweet. Sharing with friends is even better. Happy days! But, it’s a bit
awkward when you’re standing around with mouths full of chocolate and delicious
caramel and your vegan friends walk up.

Guilty
side ways looks. Quickly trying to munch down the evidence and casually wipe
your mouth, resisting the temptation to lick your lips. Oh for shame!

Ok, it’s
probably not that dramatic. Still, I wanted my vegan friends to join in the
caramel joy too! The challenge to create
a non-dairy caramel was too fun to pass up! Thanks to Chad and the eager volunteer tasters
for their help! The end result was a non-dairy coconut caramel, which we now
use to make non-dairy gooey pecans, non-dairy habañero caramel and other vegan
caramels.Made with coconut milk (which
I do indeed make from scratch myself with real organic coconuts) it is smooth
and sweet just like caramel should be, but without the dairy.

Now, I have
been slightly reluctant to advertise our vegan chocolate much because I don’t
make vegan chocolate exclusively. Although we don’t put dairy in our dark
chocolate or coconut caramel, we do make it in the same kitchen as our dairy
versions, so it may contain dairy traces. So, if you just can’t take a chance
that there might be a minute whisp of dairy somewhere in there, I get it, and
I’m not offended in the least. But since I get asked about vegan chocolate all
the time and because the coconut caramel has become one of our best sellers, I
thought it was time to put it out there.

Here’s a
list of some of the chocolate we make that is non-dairy (may contain dairy
traces):